Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist April 2018 - Page 30

GLOBAL CENTRE STAGE
EU-JAPAN
RELATIONS
TOWARDS A
NEW POLITICAL
AND ECONOMIC
PARTNERSHIP?
BY MICHAEL FRENKEL AND BENEDIKT WALTER*
T
he visit of Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kōno in
Brussels on 8 December 2017 marked the end of
four years of negotiation of a comprehensive free
trade and partnership agreement between the European
Union and Japan. The so-called “EU-Japan Economic
Partnership Agreement (EPA)” is a major achievement in
the economic cooperation between the two economic areas,
because it comprises far reaching liberalisation measures in
international trade and facilitates mutual investment activities.
For example, the agreement will eliminate tariffs on 91
percent of EU exports to Japan on the day of its ratiﬁ cation.
After different transition periods, 99 percent of EU imports
from Japan will be fully liberalised. Furthermore, the new
agreement is expected to provide a new impetus for EU-Japan
political cooperation beyond the economic rationale.
The importance of the agreement for the Japanese
government - both in political and economic terms - was
emphasised by a recent visit of Japan’s Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe to six Central and Eastern European countries.
Abe visited Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and
Romania in an effort to foster a rapid implementation of the
EU-Japan EPA which still needs to be ratiﬁ ed by the European
Parliament and the EU member states. Bulgaria took a
pivotal role in Abe’s visit to Europe, as it currently holds the
rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union
and is, thus, a key partner for Japan in its efforts towards a
speedy ratiﬁ cation of the EU-Japan EPA. During Abe’s visit
to Bulgaria, both sides agreed to aim to ratify the agreement
by 2018 so that it can come into effect by 2019.
The EU-Japan EPA is a comprehensive trade and
investment agreement that is intended to significantly
go beyond the simple liberalisation of tariffs. It aims at
overcoming trade and investment barriers in a wide variety
of sectors and also addresses non-tariff trade barriers which
28 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 4 • April 2018, Noida